Apple buys land from Crook County for new data center

Joseph EastburnFacebook's data center in Prineville stores data for the photos and comments users put on their pages. Last week, Apple bought 160 acres nearby to build its own data center.

Apple Inc. confirmed today that it bought 160 acres near
Prineville in central Oregon for a new data center, making it the latest
tech giant to locate a server farm in the state.

Crook County commissioners signed the $5.6 million deal Feb. 15,
said county judge Mike McCabe, who chairs the commission. The Oregonian
reported in December that Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple was eyeing the
land, about a quarter mile south of a data center operated by Facebook.

"We're just delighted they decided to sign on the dotted line and
come to Prineville," McCabe said. "We're going to forbear some taxes,
but gosh darn, we're looking at a couple hundred jobs for quite some
time in the construction phase and maybe half that many after that."

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said "we purchased the
land and it's for a data center," but would not elaborate further, other
than to say it will be a "green" facility.

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Amazon and Google already own data centers in Oregon, too. The
state's mild climate and relatively low power costs are part of the
draw, but tax breaks are the big attraction.

Oregon economic development officials offered an "enterprise zone"
to Apple, McCabe said. It would spare computers and other equipment from
county property taxes for some number of years -- a number neither
McCabe nor Huguet would specify Tuesday. The break could be worth
several million dollars, depending on the size of Apple's investment.

Both Prineville and Crook County would have to approve Apple's
tax-break request. That's likely not an issue, McCabe said, given the
county's 15.3 percent unemployment rate -- highest in Oregon. Server
farms aren't huge long-term employers -- Facebook employs 55 -- but
they've become a target for economic development nonetheless.

News of Apple's purchase arrives as Oregon lawmakers come closer to
exempting large data centers from having their corporate brands and
other intangible property taxed by the Oregon Department of Revenue.
Facebook lobbied hard in the current legislative session to clarify
state law around the issue, and Apple reportedly expressed concerns
about it as well.

Apple is expanding its data centers to support its iTunes music
downloads and its new iCloud service, which stores customer photos,
videos, songs and contacts online. It recently completed a data center
in North Carolina that was certified by the U.S. Green Building Council
and will draw some power from solar and fuel cell technologies, Apple said.

Still, the facility will likely consume a lot of power and water.
Documents at the Bonneville Power Administration, a regional power
provider, described the Apple facility, then code-named "Maverick," as a
31-megawatt data center, which would be a bit smaller than Google's
facility in The Dalles. Thirty-one megawatts is enough to power more
than 22,000 homes, or five Prinevilles.